Container Ship Rams Control Tower

Four dead, six missing. Collision just after 11 pm. Four injured. Search in water and beneath wreckage for missing six. Engine failure thought to be responsible

A container ship leaving Genoa harbour on Tuesday evening collided with the Giano wharf control tower, bringing it crashing to the ground. Four people died and four more were injured while six are still unaccounted for. At least two of those missing are trapped underneath the wreckage. The identities of three of the victims have been announced: Livorno-born Genoa harbour pilot Michele Robazza, 41, Daniele Fratantonio, 30, from Rapallo and Davide Morella, 33, from Bisceglie. Fratantonio and Morella were both serving at the harbour office. One of the theories put forward by experts is that the ship’s two engines may have failed, rendering the vessel uncontrollable. Two of the four injured are in a serious condition. Genoa’s prosecution service has opened a case file against persons unknown for multiple manslaughter.

MOBILE PHONE – The search is on for those unaccounted for both in the water and under the wreckage of the control tower. Three people were in the tower lift when the collision took place. A mobile phone ringing under the wreckage in the middle of the night briefly raised rescuers’ hopes but fell silent before searchers were able to locate the owner, who must have been trapped in the rubble. Coastguard SAR (search and rescue) squads and firefighters are carrying out the search operation. Divers worked through the night “in very difficult visibility conditions caused in part by the mud churned up by the wreckage”.

COLLISION – Just after 11 pm, the Jolly Nero, a Messina-line container ship built in 1976, , was making its way out of the harbour bound for Naples guided by two pilot boats. For reasons that are not clear, the 239.26 metre-long, 30.5 metres-wide vessel, which has a gross tonnage of 40,594 tons and a draught of 11.5 metres, went out of control and rammed the pilots’ building, where many of the Genoa harbour office pilots live and work. The 54 metre-high tower tilted over to an angle of 45 degrees under the impact and crashed onto a nearby building, totally destroying it.

WITNESSES – “I was on duty on the Giano wharf when I heard the impact. I went round, looked back and saw it. At first we thought it might have been a ship that had collided. I glanced back and couldn’t see the control tower any more. So I leaned out and saw the wreckage and the ship moving off”. The man talking to Genoa’s Primocanale television station is Girolamo Cuomo, a Genoa harbour worker who witnessed yesterday evening’s collision. According to R.G., one of the security guards on duty at the Giano wharf check point, the tower “came crashing down” after the impact. R.G. had only just come on duty when the incident occurred. “It must have been eleven o’clock, or just after. I was in the check point office when I heard what sounded like an explosion. Three guys then ran past screaming: ‘The tower! The tower!’ I went outside and the tower had gone. In its place was a ship’s prow”. “We’re shattered, worse than that”, says a tearful Stefano Messina, the Jolly Nero’s owner. “This has never happened before. We are heart-stricken”.

PUBLIC MOURNING – The mayor of Genoa, Marco Doria, and the chair of the harbour authority, Luigi Merlo, rushed to the scene. The mayor announced public mourning for the “extremely serious incident that affects the entire city”. “It’s a terrible tragedy. We are devastated, what can we say? It’s an incident without an explanation for the time being. It was a perfect evening”, said harbour authority chair Luigi Merlo. “The sea was calm, there was no wind and the illumination was perfect. The manoeuvre shouldn’t have been carried out in that area. The ship was leaving the harbour and it’s not as if it’s a particularly big vessel”. On Wednesday morning, the prime minister, Enrico Letta, met the infrastructure and transport minister Maurizio Lupi at the Prime Minister’s Office, Palazzo Chigi, before leaving for Genoa. He will report to Parliament in the afternoon.

TOWER – The Genoa harbour control tower, which collapsed after it was rammed by the Jolly Nero, housed various offices, including the harbour pilot company and the coastguard. According to rescuers, the collision took place during a change of shift, which makes it harder to establish with any precision how many people were on the wharf at the time. The 54 metre-high control tower dates from the Nineties and covered the whole of the north Tyrrhenian Sea. Its radar installation has a range of up to 30 or 40 miles.